


Lifetime of Christmas

by findmeinthevoid



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, M/M, ML Secret Santa, MLSS2K17, Season 2 spoilers, but kinda, not really - Freeform, some background adrino
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-14 02:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12998319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/findmeinthevoid/pseuds/findmeinthevoid





	Lifetime of Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anthemyst](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthemyst/gifts).



Gabriel Agreste had always loved the holiday season. The snow-blanketed city twinkled and glittered with dazzling lights, shining of jolly red and rich gold during the wintertime. From the windows of the modest apartment, the world looked simply magical. His mother calling him away from the window to join the family in front of the fireplace with a mug of hot cocoa and many a lively story of Christmas traditions.

He had always been a soft-spoken child, analyzing everything he saw with a critical eye and a close attention to detail. When he was nine, his father gifted him a sketchbook so he could draw and immortalize the sights he loved in graphite and charcoal. He would draw everything he saw, people walking by on the street and chattering classmates at school. The figures were rudimentary, but he paid special attention to their clothing. Every rhinestoned collar, every crease in the sleeves, all of it was preserved in that sketchbook and the next one, and the next one.

The next Christmas he was invited to attend a fancy office party hosted by one of his father’s colleagues with his family. He’d left his sketchbook at home, but the moment he saw the guests his fingers itched for it. The attendees were dressed in fine dresses of lace and satin, jet black tuxedos that were devoid of even a speck of dust. Gabriel watched them from his place away from other children (his mother had sentenced him to the more juvenile section and encouraged him to try and ‘make friends’), swishing cascades of richly colored silk as they danced. The moment he returned home, he sought his sketchbook to replicate the wonders he had seen in fabrics.

Tease as the children would, mocking him for his feminine interest, he soon knew that he wanted to be a fashion designer when he grew up. The teen often found himself lonely, rebuffed by his peers for his dreams, but he found solace in textiles and threads. He learned to use his mother’s sewing machine and to bring his designs into reality. He experimented with different materials and arrangements, sometimes having to tear apart entire creations because of a few imperfect stitches.

Eventually, the need for social interaction caught up with him and the aspiring fashion designer created connections with a few people in college, granting him access to a number of late-night parties where he could go to maintain some variety from studying fashion. It was at one of the more civilized of these parties, a holiday celebration, where he met the woman who’d steal his heart. Adele was coy and daring, a stark contrast to his own serious and isolated personality, but as they exchanged contacts and promised to keep in touch. For once, he found himself content in the company of others. They met again a few times, and before long, they were dating.

The next winter they decided to finally introduce their families at a grand banquet hosted by her parents. In a grand hall adorned with luxury Gabriel rarely had the chance to see, Monsieur and Madame Rochester invited them to sit to a sumptuous dinner. He awkwardly established small talk with his girlfriend’s family, answering every one of their curious questions and wishing they would stop scrutinizing him, but the moment he saw Adele, gliding to the table in an ensemble of his own design, it was worth every nosy interrogation. Watching her as she fondly told them of her boyfriend’s talent and ambition, the way her eyes shone when she revealed that he had designed the masterpiece she wore tonight, he knew that the small box in his pocket was one thing he would never regret.

While the others waltzed on the spacious dance floor, the lovers excused themselves from the hall. Outside, in front of a lovely arrangement of poinsettias and wreaths decorated with lustrous tinsel, Gabriel kneeled before his love on one knee, promising her a life of love and joy. The couple was glowing as they floated back to their families, sailing on cloud nine as Adele displayed the sparkling diamond on her ring finger, a token of their union and forerunner to the jubilant wedding that took place the following spring.

As time went by, Gabriel’s dream of becoming a fashion icon bloomed to fruition, and by the fifth anniversary of his marriage to Adele, he’d broken off of the company he designed for to launch his own. That Christmas, his wife coaxed him out of his _atelier_ to come to dinner, insisting it was only fair that he should at least spend holidays with her if his career took so much of his time. He relented, joining her at the spacious table that their newly-bought mansion furnished. It was a quiet affair, just the two of them while his assistant and the bodyguard managed his workshop.

Adele chatted with him about how matters were going in the house while he was tending to matters in Milan and New York and other fashion capitals away from home.

“I miss you so much when you’re gone,” she lamented.

“I promise, as soon as I can set up contacts overseas, I’ll stay right here in Paris with you,” he assured her as they dug into an extravagant meal. Adele, in particular, seemed very enthusiastic about the food, and he watched her warily as she consumed far more desserts than he had usually seen her eat.

“Are you alright?” he asked her concernedly when she reached for another slice of pie. “You don’t usually eat this much.”

“Well, I suppose now that I’m pregnant I need more food than usual,” she said, delicately taking a spoonful from the piece and putting it in her mouth.

“Hmm,” he hummed in acceptance of her explanation before the words actually reached him and he nearly choked on his trifle. “Wait, what?” 

Adele beamed, taking his hand into her own.

“We’re going to have a baby,” she affirmed, eyes sparkling with happiness. Gabriel simply stared at her, mind struggling to comprehend.

“How-how long?” he finally managed to ask.

“Two months,” she answered and he broke into a smile.

“I don’t believe it,” he shook his head in wonder and his wife laughed.

“You’d better believe it,” she smiled, revealing an ultrasound photo.

Gabriel looked at the small blurry figure for a long time, staring at the white shape until he could finally wrap his mind around the fact, and even then, it exceeded him. He looked back up at his

wife.

“I guess I’ll have to add baby clothes to the next line,” he decided, and Adele chuckled.

*

The next Christmas, Gabriel was joined by his wife and their four-month-old bundle of sunshine. Adrien giggled as his father lifted him to touch the star atop the Christmas tree, going wild with laughter when the ornaments spun around at his touch. He screamed and kicked when Nathalie bound him in a high chair to join his parents at the dinner table, only relaxing when he saw them there, too. Since he had started babbling, the house seemed much less empty, filled by his delighted gurgles and anguished wails. Gabriel also chose to recognize the seventh anniversary of his engagement and first of the day Adele revealed she was expecting by commisioning a portrait of the three of them. After a photo shoot during which the young Agreste was most uncooperative, the artist promised to be finished in three months’ time, and they elected to take a stroll around the city.

Taking in the enchanting atmosphere of Paris with Adele and an entranced Adrien, Gabriel flashed back to the days of his childhood when he would stare out the window and imagine magic. This time, though, the scene was infinitely more spellbinding because he was sharing it with two of the most perfect humans in the world. In that moment, he decided that he wouldn’t give up either of them for anything in the world, no matter who tried to take the happiness of being with them from him. That would later be his worst regret.

*

Adele’s disappearance shattered him, and, by extension, his relationship with Adrien. That winter, he isolated himself from the others, locking himself in his workshop to grieve his first Christmas after her departure. Finally, Nathalie managed to convince him to reach out to his son, but Adrien, set that his father no longer cared about him, left the house in an action of hurt rebellion. Gabriel retired to his alter ego’s lair to mourn the loss of the two closest people he’d ever had, and, despite having tried to avoid an akumatization on Christmas, sent an akuma in a fit of frustration.

That night, after the liveliest holiday dinner he’d attended in years, Gabriel, alone once more, swore to himself that he would never let anything happen to Adrien and that he would bring his wife back whatever it took.

*

The years passed and Adrien grew older, though Gabriel still held him close for fear of losing the last family he had left. Adrien struggled and rebelled, but his father could not take the risk, and instead kept him under his complete control. Finally, he relented and allowed Adrien to study abroad, on the condition that he would come back to Paris every holiday. Though the mansion felt emptier devoid of its heir, Gabriel’s daily routine and schedule were much the same before and after his son had gone; something he regretted in his subconscious but waved off so as not to distract him from his career. Adrien’s bodyguard stayed to guard the house, but after a while even he was dismissed, leaving the house with only two inhabitants who maintained a strictly professional relationship.

With Adrien gone, the akumas were lessening too, as the fashion designer became more and more hopeless in his predicament. Ladybug was older now, and she, too, soon disappeared from the city, likely to travel abroad for post-secondary. Gabriel grew elusive as well, and the public rarely saw the face of the designer behind their clothing as he retired to his own home and concealed himself in shadows.

Even Adrien’s occasional visits were becoming more and more taut with tension. Their interactions were much more formal and less enthusiastic on his son’s part, something he tried to overlook but gnawed at his conscience all the same. The next time Gabriel saw his son, he finally realized that he would not be able to hold on to the young man forever. 

That Christmas Adrien brought news and a guest to dinner, and the older man knew from the moment he opened the gates that this time he would not be able to exercise the authority he’d held over his son for the past two decades. Gabriel recognized the guest only because he was the reason his son even bothered to keep in contact with his father; the friend he had disapproved of five years ago because of his attempts to ease the relationship between father and son. Nino stood at Adrien’s side, helping him keep his emotions and temper in check as he explained to his father that he’d had enough of Gabriel’s helicopter-parenting and wanted out. Likewise, Nathalie joined her boss as he listened to his actions over the last ten years and how he’d denied his son everything Adrien should have been entitled to as a part of his youth. Every word like a punch to his gut and a bullet to the conscience he’d been avoiding for so long. 

Finally, after a long and emotional session of raging accusations and tearful apologies, Gabriel hugged his son as they should have more than half a decade ago. Adrien returned the gesture wholeheartedly, and Nino and Nathalie watched them, satisfied, as they sank down to the ground in a heartwarming embrace. Tonight they ate with contentment, no longer on the distant opposite seats at the table but on plush chairs around the fireplace, recounting memories and moments like the perfectly imperfect family they were. They talked late into the night, bedrooms ignored as they fell asleep in their seats, hints of gratified smiles still on their faces. Nino woke up the next morning with a small round brooch on his cushion and a note reading, _This would be better kept in your possession._ He smiled, tucking it away before joining his friend at the breakfast table, play-fencing with his father using cutlery and serving utensils, both laughing and content in the other’s presence. 

At last, it came time for Adrien to leave. Gabriel joined him in packing away the room that had imprisoned his son for the last decade and was finally being vacated. Adrien zipped up his suitcase and stood up to acknowledge his father’s presence, Nino standing up as well. 

“Before I leave, I wanted to ask you something. It’s really the reason I came here,” the younger blond started. Gabriel nodded, prompting him to continue. 

“Nino and I have been friends for a long time, but a while ago we realized we’re more than just friends. We’ve been dating for a couple years, and we wanted to ask you if we could have your blessing on our marriage.” Adrien was looking up and down, anywhere but his father’s gaze. Gabriel softened, turning to both of them. 

“You may,” he approved, joining the others’ hands together. He put his own hands on Nino’s shoulders. 

“Make sure you treat him well,” he sternly told the aspiring musician. “He is an Agreste, after all.” Nino nodded, he and Adrien turned to each other smiling joyfully, and Gabriel couldn’t help but remember his own engagement to Adele all those years ago. He brushed the sad memory away, and escorted his son and son-in-law-to-be to the door, helping them carry Adrien’s luggage. 

Gabriel stood outside the house, waving goodbye to the silver car until it was too far to see, and even after he simply stood there, watching his son seek the long-due freedom he had finally been granted. At last, when the gusty cold forced him inside, he let the door click closed, and left the foyer. That night, Nathalie found him sitting among butterflies in solemn quiet, isolated from the rest of the world. She joined him and they sat, still cloaked in silence, but made slightly less depressing in the company of another. They stayed there until morning simply contemplating and soundlessly recounting memories. He didn’t move from his place the next morning, so she brought him food and they resumed the mute bonding. Nathalie often tried to persuade him to abandon his lair and brood somewhere less dismal and gloomy. Sometimes she found him in his workshop, the dining room, his own chamber, Adrien’s room, and other times he preferred to stay with the white-winged insects. 

Eventually Gabriel began to open up to her, from random thoughts he voiced to confiding his emotions in her. She slowly lowered the professional front, listening to his lamenting and providing a shoulder to cry on on particularly hopeless days. Months passed, and he gradually began to improve. His designs started coming from within rather than patterns he sketched without any real connection to them. Nathalie was there with him every step of the way, finally deserting her formal facade and wholeheartedly supporting him.

* 

A year later, he made her his wife.

*

And the next Christmas they spent as a married couple was only sweetened when his son and son-in-law brought a new guest to dinner; the start of a next generation of Agrestes.


End file.
